OutOfYourRut FAITH FORUM



A Successful Online Business Requires Realistic Expectations

Guest post by Clair Schwan

Working a business in the online environment can be exciting. After all, it’s cyberspace – a new frontier. And, there is little doubt that many sources of information, ways of interacting with one another, and doing business will continue to expand in popularity and effectiveness on the web. Many wanna-be business owners have jumped onto the bandwagon of the Internet and gotten themselves immersed in an online business or two. And many have been very disappointed with the results, simply because they weren’t realistic in terms of expectations.

It’s commonly known that most online businesses fail. It’s largely because those involved pull the plug and abandon their efforts. Much of this retreat in the online marketplace is attributable to inadequate planning that fails to temper expectations. The Internet works at the speed of light, but revenue and profit doesn’t necessarily follow at the same pace. Let’s look at some of the areas in which we need to be much more realistic when it comes to our expectations for success in an online business.

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How to Make Money with an “Authority” Blog

This is a guest post by Brian Garvin, a commenter here on OutOfYourRut.com. He runs an online business so I asked him to write a post describing what it is he’s doing to make that happen.

If you’ve worked in the Brick & Mortar world for any length of time, chances are you’ve picked up a skill that could be applied to the internet to start your own blog. Basically an Authority Blog is a large, content based blog lots of other bloggers and the Internet Community at large visit and respect as one of the larger blogs in that particular niche.

Most people think of Authority Blogs as being run by just large companies, but that’s not the truth. In fact many single people are running some of the largest Authority Blogs in some of the most competitive industries, such as Internet Marketing, Real Estate, Forex, Health & Wellness and Dating. So the main question to be asked is if building this type of blog is right for you. We’re gonna go over a list of questions you should answer. Answering the questions below will determine if setting up a blog is right for you.

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Advantages of Business Credit Cards

By Alban (Guest Post)

A standard credit card gives you the security and ease of use to access funds at anytime, anywhere, online, over the phone or in person, and while not all credit cards can be opened for business use, there is a wide range of business credit cards to choose from to keep your corporate spending documented, and give your business the same purchasing freedom you have come to rely on with your personal credit cards.

Benefits of Business Credit Cards

Don’t worry that your business is too small or doesn’t make enough purchases to warrant a business credit card, because there are so many different types of business credit cards available you are sure to find one to suit your business. So check out all the benefits your business can get from using a corporate credit card:

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Majoring on the Majors by Learning to Say NO

Controlling our tendency toward Creative Avoidance

By Kevin M

How is it that that some people seem enormously successful, yet astoundingly they have more free time than the rest of us? Have you ever noticed as well that some people who are incredibly busy are at best only moderately successful? Perhaps you’re one of them, always busy, but not having as much to show for your efforts as you think you should.

The typical human reaction to this apparent contradiction in the natural order of things is to assume that the successful person with all the time on his hands is a) lucky, b) has an “in” with important people, and even c) must be doing something unethical, immoral or illegal.

While each of those considerations isn’t beyond the realm of possibility, there’s a far greater chance that the successful person with all of the free time on his hands has found a way to
maximize his results while minimizing his efforts. He manages to do this by saying “NO” to unproductive tasks, either by making it clear to others up front that he won’t engage himself in them, or by simply refusing to participate.

Logically, isn’t that what we should all be doing?

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Blue Collar Jobs Can’t be Moved Offshore

By Kevin M

In Jobs and Careers That Aren’t Coming Back we listed and discussed 13 career fields that are in a state of decline and unlikely to recover. Today we’ll cover the very opposite: job fields that are here to stay and likely to expand.

Global off-shoring of jobs and advances in technology are squeezing many jobs and careers into gradual extinction, as computers and cheap overseas labor eat away at once common fields of employment. But not all career fields are affected.

People who can produce or fix things often have the greatest job security. The world is full of machines, all in need of service or repair sooner or later. Being one of the people who can keep them going is a chance to start to a side business or to full scale self-employment. Equally important, though we tend to think of most innovation occurring in laboratories, many technological discoveries happen somewhere out in the field, produced by people who can work with their hands.

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Jobs and Careers That Aren’t Coming Back

By Kevin M

Recently on OutOfYourRut I’ve been writing a series of posts centered on employment alternatives–self-employment, side businesses and soft employment (part-time, temporary or contract work). The purpose in discussing these alternatives is based on my belief that the weak employment environment we now find ourselves in may not be temporary, and longterm changes need to be implemented in order for us to survive in a job market that may look very different from what we’ve know for most of our lives.


( Photo by Phil Campbell )

Though connecting employment weakness to the recent recession is the standard line, doing so fails to give proper recognition to longer term trends which have had an even greater effect on the job market than we assume. Globalization, advances in technology and rising healthcare costs have marginalized much of the labor force in countries such as the United States. While technology has been eliminating jobs at home, wage arbitrage has been taking place globally, in a competition that high wage/high benefit labor bases, such as that of the U.S., are at a competative disadvantage versus low cost/unbenefited work forces in third world countries. We can protest that it’s unfair competition all we want, but it’s also the reality of our time.

Though the evidence is all around us, I stumbled upon a recent article that addresses the longer term job outlook more directly.

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Starting a Side Business – Why Now is the Time

Kevin M

Unstable employment may be here to stay. 10% of the work force is now unemployed, and millions more are under-employed, working at temporary or part-time jobs. By some indicators the economy is showing signs of recovery, but globalization, advances in technology and rising healthcare costs have been gradually cutting away at employment long before onset of the Great Recession.

In Multiple Income Streams to replace One Man-One Job?, we discussed different options to deal with the increasing unreliability of permanent, full-time, fully benefited jobs. Starting a side business is at the center of that discussion.

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Multiple Income Streams to replace One Man-One Job?

By Kevin M

You may be employed at the moment; in fact you may even be well-employed. But look at many others around you and what do you see? With millions unemployed, millions more under-employed, and hundreds of thousands of jobs being outsourced to lower wage countries, what does the future of employment hold? Is it possible that the sun is setting on the traditional one man/one job model of employment and income?

Before dismissing the possibility, consider that only 40 years ago tens of millions of workers were employed in largely high paying, mostly unionized factory jobs. Just over 100 years ago the majority of Americans were employed in agriculture. Where are all of those jobs now? And if one man/one job is going the way of the factory job, what are our options?

Developing multiple income streams may become a necessary reaction to an environment where the unemployed often return to the work force in lower paying jobs.

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7 Ways to Improve the Success of Your New Business

By Kevin M

Starting a new business is often a process of navigating a series of challenges. The greatest ideas can land in a ditch for unforeseen reasons. In fact it’s often not a bad concept that causes a new business to fail, but a lack of staying power. Starting a business should be thought of as a long term plan and not a get-rich-quick scheme.

Motivational author and speaker Robert Ringer provided a user-friendly re-definition of the concept of positive thinking as positive thinking through assumption of a negative result. You don’t assume failure, but you anticipate problems and prepare for them.

There is a constructive difference between true optimism and blind optimism. True optimism is based on solid planning—it springs from preparation and planning. The more common blind version rests on vague concepts like an idea that’s “too good to fail” or “I’ll succeed because I’m me, and I believe in me”. That kind of hype can quickly vaporize in the face of an empty bank account or a failed business deal.

So what kind of preparations will stack the deck in favor of your new business venture and generate a sense of true optimism?

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Cultivate Multiple Income Sources

STRATEGY #5 TO SURVIVE A DOWN ECONOMY

By Kevin M

In the dreary job market of the moment, people are having difficulty with two major areas in particular: keeping a steady income flow and increasing that flow. The increasing level of unemployment is not only eliminating jobs, but it’s also putting a lid on raises and promotion opportunities. This is in large part, the driving force behind the credit crisis and the epidemic of foreclosures and bankruptcies. Is there a way to deal with it without taking unnecessary risks?

In 10 Ways To Survive a Down Economy (published on Christianpf.com June 1) we listed ten strategies to help us deal with the bad economy. Our topic for today, Strategy #5:

Be prepared to cultivate and balance multiple income sources. You may have a full time job and a part time business, or vice versa. Think of your work in terms of an investment portfolio, in which diversification adds strength. There are probably several jobs you are potentially good at; always be on the lookout for new opportunities.

Why increasing income or broadening the income base matter

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